Mar 1, 2002 - contributing towards the development of the subject, generating services to help scientists in making vital ... contribution on bibliometrics from India emanated from INSDOC with the ... It is a custom with every IVobel laureate to deliver a lecture based on the .... software was developed basing C package and ...
Annals of Library and Information Studies. 49, 1; 2002; 1-6.
INSDOC'S CONTRIBUTION TO BIBLIOMETRICS*
B K Sen 80 Shivalik Apartments Alaknanda, New Delhi -1 10012 Email: bksenQndb.vsnl.net.in
Traces the history of bibliometric research, and related training activities in INSDOC. Describes briefly the objectives, facilities, services, research activities, and publications of National Centre on Bibliornetrics.
INTRODUCTION lndian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), New Delhi is one of the organizations in the world that has greatly devoted itself to the emerging discipline of bibliometrics by contributing towards the development of the subject, generating services to help scientists in making vital decisions like selecting a scientist for a national award or a prestigious fellowship, making scientists aware of the value of their work, helping librarians i n reducing the number of subscribed periodicals judiciously when there is shortage of funds; and so on. In this article the bibliometric contributions and activities of INSDOC since 1958 are recounted.
GENESIS The review of bibliometric literature conducted by Sen and Narendra Kumar [ I ] showed that the first contribution on bibliometricsfrom India emanated from INSDOC with the publication of an article by Dutta and Rajagopalan in 1958 [2].The article was on the study of citation practices in 200 lndian and foreign S & T journals.
Bidyarthi Dutta, Anup Kumar Das Digital Information Consultants Pvt. Ltc 73/20, Golf Club Road Kolkata 700033 Email: das-anup Q rediffmail.com Email: bidyarthiduttaa rediffmail.com
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS Coverage of lndian S & T Literature'
B S Kesavan, after joining INSDOC i early 1960s, decided to bring out lndian cience Abstracts covering all lndian contrihuti ns on science and technology appearing in ournal articles, conference documents, and so n. This decision raised many an eyebrow and q stions from various quarters. Some of the scienti s were of the opinion that lndian scientific cantri utions were being adequately covered by inter ational abstracting and indexing services, hence there was no need to bring out another pu ication recording these contributions. Are lndian contributions covered adequately by inter ational abstracting and indexing services? This q estion occasioned several studies and showed at the coverage of lndian literature was inade ate in most cases and grossly inadequate ir some cases. Mathematical Reviews and Lrulletin Signaletique covered 55.2% and 50.5% lndian mathematics literature respectively [3].In tt e case of physics, the coverage was found to be 65.5% and 57.4% in physics 1960 and 1961 abstracting services, the coverage
chemical literature within 24 coverage of lndian medical
*Paper presented at the XXlll IASLIC Conference, Trivandrurn, 4 -7 December 2001. Vol 49 No 1 March 2002
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B K Sen, Bidyarthi Dutta and Anup Kumar Das
Medicus and Excerpta Medica was found to be the worst [6]. The services covered 38% and 13.5% of lndian medical literature respectively. The coverage of lndian agricultural literature by six CAB abstracting services was also studied [7]. The coverage of lndian literature of 1961 and 1962 by these services were as follows: Soils and Fertilisers (29.8%, 36.6%), Plant Breeding Abstracts (63.3%, 65.6%), HorticulturalAbstracts (32.1 %, 40.9%), Field Crop Abstracts (23.5%, 34.4%), Animal Breeding Abstracts (58.3%, 55%) and Dairy Science (86.7% 67.6%). The poor coverage of the lndian S &T literature by most of the international abstracting and indexing services justified more than enough the launching of the lndian Science Abstracts in 1964 which continues to date. Hints of India's Nuclear Capability In 1965, Guha et al [8] carried out a study basing 750 periodicals covered by INSDOC List in 1964 and detected 1406 lndian S&T articles published in foreign journals. Of these articles, a large number were devoted to nuclear science and technology. Basing this finding, lndian press presumed that lndia had developed the capability of making an atom bomb and flashed the news. Though the study did not presume any such thing, the later happenings however indicated that the presumption of the press was possibly not wrong. lndian Contributions in Nobel Lectures It is a custom with every IVobel laureate to deliver a lecture based on the topic for which he has been awarded the Nobel Prize. The lecture is usually called the Nobel Lecture. In the lecture, the Nobel laureate brings out the salient features of his contribution, acknowledges the work of others that has helped him and also names those who has been influenced by his work. Sen [9] studied the citations of lndian contributions in Nobel lectures (Physics 1901 -62; Chemistry 1901 -62; and Medicine 1922 -62), and found that in all twentyone lndian scientists were cited in the aforesaid Nobel lectures, of which twelve were cited by CV Raman. MN aha was the first to be cited (cited by WH Nerst 1920), and SN Bose and HJ Bhabha were the last to be cited (both were cited by H Yukawa in 1949).
Change of titles of periodicals is phenomenon. For example, the title of Library Science changed to Science and Documentatio Annals of Library and Information 2001. The change of titles poses m in literature search, bibliographica so on. A study was undertaken explore the causes of this Unfortunately, the study could no In all, five instalments of the stud [ I 0-141 which revealed many change of titles. Merger of tw splitting of a title; change in sponsor name, and periodicity f title; change in the scope, etc are common causes of the change periodicals.
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Other Contributions
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Other bibliometric and related studies nducted by INSDOC pertain to length of lndia names [23], nascent subject , i.e. supergra ity [24], 'informetrics [25], lndian chemical perio cals [26], lndian scientific periodicals [27], lndia medical periodicals in Science Citation Index [ 1, lndian S & T journals in Science Citation 1 dex [29], Citation behaviour of chemical scien ists [30], Standard impact factor [31], Journal o Oilseeds Research [32], Evaluation of science [3 1, Review of bibliometric studies done in lndia [ 1, etc. NATIONAL CENTRE The establishment of Bibliometrics (NCB) in 1 NISSAT is possibly the INSDOC to bibliometrics [I 51. Objectives The objectives of the Centre were
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to create S & T citation databas of lndian contributions appearing in lndi n S & T journals;
ii)
to develop tools, techniques and odalities for the analysis of research out ut based
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INSDOC'S CONTRfBUTION TO BIBLIO: ETRICS
on SCI data and the Indian S &T citation database; iii)
to analyse the research outputs of selected research institutions, agencies, universities and other similar bodies.
The efforts enumerated above would result in the development of science indicators that could be useful in planning, funding, policy making for R & D management, assessment of R & D output, etc. in any specialised system or conglomeration of systems.
Facilities The Centre has all the cumulative volumes of Science Citation Index (SCI) from 1955 to date in print form. It has also annual versions in CDROM of SCI from 1980 to date. The Journal Citation Report (JCR) is also available from the very first issue. The print form of SCI is available for consultation at the National Science Library, INSDOC, New Delhi.
Services The services of the Centre among others comprise the following: i)
Analysis of research outputs of individual scientists, teams, institutions, etc.
ii)
Organization of training courses on bibliometrics.
iii)
Consultancy relating to bibliometric studies, improvement of impact factor of journals, etc.
iv)
Supply of impact factors of all S&T journals including those not covered by SCI.
v)
Reply to queries pertaining to bibliometrics, etc.
Ever since its establishment, NCB has been carrying out citation analysis of scientists for potential Bhatnagar awardees, INSA fellows, and so on. This service has made a big impact in the scientific communities in the country. It is strongly
Vol 49 No 1 March 2002
believed that evaluation of a scient c work becomes much more objective whf peers evaluate the works of a scientist ta ng into account the citation scenario of the wc ;s.
Research
Evaluafion of Recent Research
out^ t
The major activity that NCB took up establishment was the evaluation of the output of CSlR laboratories. The evalua' citation analysis is an established met method of analysis is applicable for o papers which are at least four- to five. But the job that was assigned to NC analyse the most recerrbpapers, i.e. t t of the last year. No known method was to evaluate such recent papers. Hence, was needed to develop a completely net for evaluation. The method developed M on the impact factor of the journals wt papers were published, the impact fac considered as the score of the papers the paper describing the method was F to the International Conference on Indicators for Developing Countries, P 19 October 1990,the Chairman of the Thomas 0 Eisemon declared that all 0th presented in the Conference were \ methods developed earlier. But the pap and Kumar describes a completely nev The paper was later published in Scier;
lfter its search In using )d. This y those 2ar old. was to papers tailable search method s based rein the ,r being When ?sented ;cience *is, 15 iession, .papers ~ r k son by Sen nethod. ~metrics
[161To check whether or not the aforesaic was correct, another study was conc 1991,taking the 1988 papers as the sar For CSlR Research Output of 1988 factors of the journals were consic evaluation. The 1991 study was basc citations received by the sample of the papers published in 1988. The ra laboratories according to citations e: tallied with the raking of 1988 study ( impact factor. Thus, this study valic method employed in 1988 using impac
method icted in ~ l [I e71. impact red for on the oresaid king of ellently ne with ted the actors.
Using this method, the CSlR Researi Output is published till date and acts as an v a l ~ ble tool for planning, decision making, funding a so on.
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B K Sen, Bidyarthi Dutta and Anup Kumar Das
Impact Factor of non-SCI Journals
lndian Science Citation lndex
CSlR Research Output used to include all research papers published by CSlR laboratories during the previous calendar year. To determine the total impact factor, average impact factor, etc of all CSlR laboratories individually and ccllectively, it was necessary to have impact factors of all publications. As JCR does not provide impact factors of all S & T periodicals, necessity arose to develop a method to determine the imdact factors of all periodicals not covered by SCI . The method developed for the purpose [I 81 was hailed by Eugene Garfield as an effective method for determining the impact factor [I 91.
Science Citation lndex (SCI) brought c Institute of Scientific Information, USA cc about a dozen Indian S&T periodicals ou six hundred. As a result, SCI fails t' properly the citation scenario of lndiar To solve this problem, the idea of lndiar Citation lndex was conceived. Ne software was developed basing C package and adequate testing done. Thc of the database also began wil enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the project immature suspension.
by the rrs only ~fsome portray lapers. icience ?ssary S/ISIS reation great ced an
Publications Normalised Impact Factor
The research horizon of all CSlR laboratories encompasses almost all fields of science and technology. The ranking of CSlR laboratories based on the total impact factors and average impact factors placed some of the laboratories at a disadvantage because of the wide variation of impact factors from field to field. For example, the highest impact factor in biochemistry and molecular biology is usually above 20,the same in aeronautics is around 0.5.The performance of laboratories working on these two different areas showed huge disparity in terms of the total impact factor and average impact factor. To reduce this disparity, the idea of normalised impact factor came into being. In the case of normalised impact factor, the highest impact factor in all fields were considered as 10,and accordingly the impact factors of all periodicals within each field were calculated and used for the,purposeof evaluation [20,211. Ranking of Scientists
.
When INSDOC started getting orders for conducting citation analysis of the nominees for various awards and fellowships, it was thought desirable to rank the scientists belonging to the same field. For several years, it was seen that the scientists occupying the top ranks in our list were getting the awards.or fellowships. This emboldened us to publish the method of ranking developed by us [22].
CSlR Research Output [35] is a publication brought out by the Nation on Bibliometrics annually. The circulati publication is, however, restricted. In : Knowledge is another important pu This PI brought out by the Centre [36]. comprises best research papers proc CSlR ever since its inception in 1942. papers were selected by the re laboratories first. From among these pa those were included in the aforesaid vol~ fulfilled the citation-based criterion fixec subject.
egular Centre I of the arch of ication lication ced by i e best lective rrs only les that Dr each
TRAINING Ever since the inception of the INSDO titled Associateship in Documenta Reprography in 1964 (now known as teship in Information Science), biblior being taught. The first dissertal bibliometrics from India, to our knowle produced by JS Ghosh as a student of course in 1967 [37].A look at the disse Eugene Garfield was enough to earn job at the Institute of Scientific lnformat the pr~ducerof Science Citation Inde~ internationally famous bibliometriciar Sengupta is also a product of the INSDO The names of other bibliometricians INS given birth to can be seen from tt references given below. Till date, INSD a complete elective paper entitled In1 and Collateral Areas for AIS cou organizes short-term courses on bib1 from time to time.
course )n and ssociaitrics is n on le, was SDOC ition by hosh a I, USA, inother i.e. IN course. OC has list of 2 offers me trics e, and metrics
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INSDOC'S CONTRIBUTION TO BIBLIO
Documentation. 11; 1964; 87 -95.
CONCLUSION The modest beginning of bibliometrics research that INSDOC witnessed in late 1950's continued towards maturity with the progress of time and reached its hayday in late 1980's when Mr T K Datta was the Scientist-in-Charge. It is during his short tenure of slightly more than a year, the National Centre on Bibliometrics (NCB) came into being, the book In Search of Knowledge was published, and CSlR Research Outputwas born. The National Centre on Bibliometrics could not grow the way it should have due to various factors. NISSAT's financial support which was vital for NCB's sustenance and g r ~ w t hstarted gradually dwindling and eventually stopped by mid-1990's. It is unfortunate that the National Centre on Bibliometrics, which could have been a forerunner in the area of bibliometrics in the world, is almost a non-entity today.
TRICS
5.
KRISHNAN (A), MOHAN lndian documents in technology: a study of quickness of documentation 1963; 33-51.
7.
RAJAGOPALAN (T S), SEN (B UPADHYAY (P D).
-99.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Continuous support and encouragement of Mrs. T. A. Pandalai, Asst. Head, Bibliometric Service Division, INSDOC and Mrs. Aruna Karanjai, Documentation Officer E-ll, INSDOC received during the writing of this paper are thankfully acknowledged.
8.
GUHA (B), GUPTA (A K), KACHROO (M L). lndian authors in sample survey. and
9.
SEN (B K). lndian lectures. Annals Documentation.
REFERENCES
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1.
SEN (B K), KUMAR (Narendra). lndian contributions in bibliometrics 1958 - 1984: a review. Annals of Library Science and Documentation. 33, 3; 1986; 85 -1 03.
10. GUHA (B), SEN (B K), NlYOGl ( N). On changes of titles of periodicals -P I Annals of Library Science and Documen tion. 22, 2; 1975; 45 - 59.
2.
DUTTA (S), RAJAGOPALAN (T S). Literature citations in scientific and technical periodicals - a survey. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research. 17A, July; 1958; 259 -261.
11. - Do - Pt II. Annals of Library Sc nce and Documentation. 22, 3; 1975; 93 107.
3.
4.
PETER (K M), RAJAGOPALAN (T S). Study on. the scatter of contributions of lndian scientists in lndian and foreign periodicals. I - Mathematics. Annals of Library Science and Documentation. 13, 3; 1966; 142-150. RAJAGOPALAN (T S), SEN (B K). Reporting of lndian physics literature in the Physics Abstracts. Annals of Library Science and
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12. - Do - Pt Ill. Annals of Library Documentation. 23, 2; 1976;
t
13. - Do - Pt IV. Annals of Library.Sc nce and Documentation. 23, 3; 1976; 213 222.
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14. - Do - Pt V. Annals of Library Sc nce and Documentation. 24, 3-4; 1977; 13 -137.
15.
SEN (BK). National Centre on Bibt ometrics. NlSSAT Newsletter. 7, 4; 1988; !-6.
Sen, Bidyarthi ~ u t t aa i d Anup ~ u k Dm r
SEN (B K), Kumar (Shailendra). Evaluation of recent scientific output by bibliometric method. Scientometrics. 23, 1; 1992; 3146. ARORA (K), SEN ( 6 K). Use of impact factor as a valid measure for evaluating the performance of a scientific paper. Third lnternational Conference on Informetrics,9 -1 2 A u ~ 1991 . SEN (B K), KARANJAI (A), MUNSHI (U M). Method for the determination of impact factors of non-SCI journals. Journal of Documentation. 45, 2; 1989; 137. GARFIELD (E). Current Contents.22; 1990; 5. SEN (B K). Normalised impact factor. Journal of Documentation. 48,3; 1992; 318. SEN ( 6 K), MUKHOPADHYAY (A). A scientometric tool based on normalised impact factor. Proceedings-Fifth International Conference of the lnternational Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, Chicago, June 7 -10, 1995. 495 - 504. SEN ( 6 K), PANDALAI (T A), KARANJAI (A). Ranking of scientists - a new approach. Journal of Documentation. 54,5; 1998; 622628. SEN ( 6 K), GUPTA (S K), GHOSH (S 6). lndian names and computers. Annals of Library Science and Documentation. 22, 2; 1975; 78-86. BHATTACHARYYA (H), SEN (B K). Application of citation analysis in supergravity - a nascent subject. Proc 15th IASLIC Conf 1985, p 127-33. RAJAN (T N), SEN (B K). An essay on informetrics : a study on growth and development. Annals of Library Science and Documentation. 33, 1-2; 1986; 1-12. SEN (B K), PANDALAI (T A). Chemical periodicals in India. Seminar on Learned Periodicals , Feb 1989, New Delhi. New Delhi: INSDOC, 1989.
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SEN ( 6 K), PANDALAI (T A). lndian scientific periodicals - past and resent. Paper presented at the Brains orming Session on lndian S & T Periodical , March 1989, Madras. MUNSHI (U M), KARANJAI (A), S lndian medical periodicals and Citation Index. IASLIC Bulletin. 43-46.
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SEN (6 K), LAKSHMI (V V). lndi journals in the Science Citatio Scientometrics. 23, 2 ; 1992; 29-5 MUNSHI (U M), KARANJAI (A), S Citation behaviour of chemical a case study. ILA Bulletin. 27,
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SEN ( 6 K), PAMDALAI (T A), KA (A K). Standard impact factor. lnternational Conference on Bibli Informetrics, and Scientometrics September 1993, Berlin. KALYANE (V L), SEN (B K): A study of the Journal of Annals of Documentation.
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PANDALAI (T A), KARANJAI (A), EN ( 6 K). Bibliometrics in the evalu tion of science. Handbook of libraries, rchives and information centres in India V. 13 Bibliometrics, scientometric , and informetrics. New Delhi, 1996. p. -1 11 SEN (6 K), LAKSHMI (V V). Bibli in India. ILA Bulletin. 26,4; 1991;
CSIR Research National Centre on SEN ( 6 K), PANDALAI (T A), "V), KARANJAI (A), MUNSHI (SHAILENDRA). In Search New Delhi: CSIR, 1988. Index.
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GHOSH (J S). Citation indexi g and literature search through Science itation Index [Dissertation]. New Delhi: I SDOC,
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